Trouble in Pandoran Paradise
by JChandley
Summary: Anthony Dowell is a cynical, paranoid Private Investigator called to Pandora for reasons unknown. For this case, he must suspect everyone- even Jake.
1. Chapter 1: Worrying in Cryostasis

I scowled when I opened the bag the RDA had given me. Can an organization be pretentious? I stared at the logo, the four circles staring back at me. I wrinkled my nose. I never did like yellow. The contents were what must have been the Resource Development Administration's idea of a carry-on bag for the ISV Venture Star. RDA toothbrush, RDA clothes. I'm surprised they hadn't started a clothing line. Heck, they already sold jewelry. I picked up the RDA brand razor and grumbled at it a bit. I had a good mind to swap it with my own. I dropped it back in the bag. The man beside me was looking bemused as he shoved his bag into the locker.

'You ready to go into cryo?' He beamed as if he was a toddler at Christmas. I frowned. Why do these people insist on small-talk? I'd had to suffer through whole minutes of conversation with fresh-faced 'scientists' already. Talking to them was like pulling teeth, they were full of boundless joy and stupid questions and bright futures. It sickened me. I frowned again before saying:

'Do you know how many things can go wrong with cryostasis? We could be frozen too much and lapse into a coma, or slowly die without ever knowing. There's around a thousand different processes the machine, computer, whatever you want to call it- has to go through to keep you sleeping soundly, and you don't so much as dream and certainly won't notice when the systems fail and we all are unable to get out of cryostasis.' I smiled at him, displaying a row of teeth. 'So no, sir. I am not ready to go into Cryo.' He stared furiously at my chin for a few seconds before shaking his head and walking off, presumably muttering 'nutter' or something to that effect.

To tell you the truth I was terri- Oh wait, I haven't told you my name yet. How callous of me. I am Anthony Dowell. That's not my birth name, I changed it because my real name didn't suit me. Maybe because I'm half Asian, half Spanish. All British, brought up in sunny old England. My Birth name doesn't matter. To you, I'm Anthony and always will be. Not Tony. Never Tony, thank you very much. My name is Anthony. Right. Good.

To tell you the truth I was terrified of going into Cryosleep. I was afraid of Pandora, afraid of the aliens, and afraid of travelling 6 light-years through space. But I had to eat, and the RDA had offered me quite the pretty penny to go over to Pandora. Did I mention? I'm a private investigator. Sometimes the police bring me in as a consultant, sometimes I'll be tasked to find a missing person. This was the first time I'd been hired by the RDA, and I was still wondering if there was a catch.

Oh, that's right, they didn't tell me what they needed me for. That's why I was scared the most. I took the job because I was desperate, but now I was actually on the ship, getting ready to take off, I was having second thoughts. Maybe I'd be fed to the natives…

Sorry, sorry, that's a bit racist I know. The Na'vi are an intelligent race with no more interest in cannibalism than us, et cetera, et cetera. I was still scared. It's not every day you get hired by one of the most powerful companies on Earth _and_ Pandora. I slammed my locker door shut, A. Dowell written on the front. I sniffed and walked slowly over to the cryostasis unit, grumbling at what could happen if a fly got in there with me, or something. I sighed. I'd have to do it anyway, may as well get it over with.

I was told that it's impossible to dream in Cryostasis. I was also told that we'd released the RDA for any liability or injury caused by cryostasis and/or other circumstances as a condition of their employment. Is it possible to worry in Cryostasis?

And just like that, I was there.

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><p><strong>Chapters won't be this short in future, guys. I hope you enjoy this story :)<strong>


	2. Chapter 2:  In Jokes Are Overrated

**The speech about feeling nauseousness and the amount of time they've been in Cryo has been taken from the Avatar script, and some other details were from the Avatar wiki. Sorry for anything that's not right :) **

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><p><em>And just like that, I was there.<em>

Waking up from Cryosleep isn't a very pleasant experience, I can tell you. For the most part I was glad that I still had all of my limbs, but the other part of me was feeling atrocious. It felt like I'd gone ten rounds in a boxing ring then told that I was just warming up. My tongue felt furry, and my mouth was dry. My head hurt like someone had hit me with a mallet, and the pain wouldn't stop. The dull, throbbing pain made it's way from my head and into my stomach, right down to the tips of my toes. What the hell had they been feeding us all these years? Antifreeze? Oh, that's right, _they don't feed us._ No wonder I could hardly move my arms. Was it too late to bail? I tried chuckling at my own joke but felt sick when I opened my mouth. I found myself thinking that this couldn't be normal, something must have gone wrong. Maybe my not exactly fit body wasn't made to be frozen then woken up.

It took about a minute or two before the panels that we were sleeping in actually opened, leaving me plenty of time to worry and fret over what was happening and why did my head hurt so badly, and maybe I'd be stuck in here forever, slowly rotting away in the strangest bed I'd ever lain on. I reminded myself to breathe. Come, on Anthony, everything is fine, don't worry. You're a big boy, don't go worrying over silly little things. Then the panels opened, giving a little jerk at first but then sliding smoothly. Outside, the light blinded my eyes. What looked like hundreds of other panels were sliding out, all symmetrical, all with two people to a panel. One above, one below. Although I guessed that there wasn't an above or below. We were in space, after all. Despite how sick I felt, I had to admire how all of the panels were perfectly symmetrical. It gave some semblance of order amidst the chaos. I heard a voice shouting:

'People, you have been in cryo for five years, nine months and twenty five You will be hungry, you will be weak. If you feel nausea, please use the sacks provided for your convenience. The staff thanks you in advance.'

I would have told him to quieten down if I could find the energy. People were floating around the room, checking on the other people who were just awakening. I looked down at the straps tying me to the bed and noticed I was sort of floating against them. Just then, a man came out of nowhere and just stopped beside me, giving me a scare. Actually, it scared the living hell out of me, but let's keep that a secret, okay?

'You okay?' he asked me. I bit my tongue, keeping from putting him down. I didn't feel up to it. So I replied simply with a feeble:

'No.'

The man smiled, and I felt a surge of anger. I was dying here, the least he could do is show a little sympathy! His hair was a mess, as was his beard. Both were coloured white. He checked my pulse and felt my forehead.

'Do you think you can make it down to Pandora?'

'No.' I replied bluntly. The man smiled again and patted my arm.

'Well you're going to have to. Just come over to the med. room when you're down, we'll give you something to make you feel better.' He tried smiling again, saw my expression, then stopped trying. He floated away.

Going down in the Valkyrie wasn't pleasant either. I had managed to change into an RDA T-shirt and RDA trousers (or pants if you prefer) when the artificial gravity systems turned themselves on. From there we were all directed to these ships, one of which I was sat in now. It wasn't exactly comfortable, let's leave it at that. It would be best if I just forgot about that ride, and the frankly embarrassing pile of sick that now lies on the floor of a certain Valkyrie.

When we touched down with a thump, a commander of some sort rose from his chair, telling us to put on our exopacks or so help us God, we'd be a pile of twitching bones and muscle on the floor before long. The exopack felt heavy strapped onto my face, and the plastic was a bit dirty. I tried to rub it off and only partly succeeded. With as much dramatic music as you please, the door of the Valkyrie shuddered open. Everyone around craned their necks to try to catch a glimpse of Pandora, of the 'wondrous' new planet we've found ourselves on. I didn't. I'd be seeing it soon enough. The light flooded into the ship and made my eyes water. A few 'wows' were muttered.

To my dismay, everyone started jogging out of the ship and towards the entrance to the huge, man-made base that lay before us. It really was impressive. I heard from somewhere that Hell's Gate covers about 3.6 square miles, or 9.4 square kilometers. Puddles of water were gathered in places, and the air had that heavy feeling that happens just after heavy rain. Everyone jogged past me, into the base. I was walking. Whatever they needed me for, it could wait a few more minutes. The fact that I was actually on Pandora felt alien to me. The commander ran to the side of me and said something, entirely too loud, about why I wasn't jogging. I ignored him. I wasn't here to negotiate with brash commanders, or whatever he was. Or maybe I was. I didn't know what I was here for. I felt the sort of fear that sinks down to the bottom of your stomach and stays there, lurking for as long as it likes. To say I was scared would be an understatement. I was terrified.

Dear Diary, today I listened to a completely unnecessary and frankly insulting safety briefing delivered by a man that looked as if he couldn't rub two sticks together to make a fire. It was great!

All jokes aside, the 'briefing' was little more than the RDA covering their arses, saying that you should keep an exopack within reach at all times, stay next to someone else when you're outside, don't wander off in the dark, kiddies, or the big bad wolf will come and get you! I was completely in the dark about why the hell I was here and what I needed to do, and they were telling me stuff a five-year-old could figure out. All my years of experience were being put to full use here, well done Resources Development Association. I'd much rather be at home, than have to deal with talking to all these people. Okay, I was a little excited about seeing the forest, but that's all. The forest is dangerous, an according to the man that gave the briefing, everything out there wants to kill me.

After the briefing an important looking man gestured me over to come to him. When I didn't seem forthcoming, he came over to me. He held out his hand.

'I'm Administrator David Steele.' He said. I stared at him. Steele lowered his hand, looking uncomfortable. 'I'm assuming you're the…' he cleared his throat, as if I was a secret. '…Private Investigator?'

'Yes.' I replied. 'Anthony Dowell.' I didn't move to shake his hand. Steele looked about forty-ish, and his hair was receding. In contrast to most of the people around us, he wore a white shirt and a yellow spotted tie. Did I ever tell you that I didn't like yellow? He had a long scar on his arm, and I made a mental note to ask him about it later.

'Nice to meet you Anthony.' He beamed. Why does everyone insist on beaming? 'If you'd like to come with me…'

It was an order, not a request. So David Steele and I walked over to the administration office, sharing delightful stories and becoming the best of friends.

Joking. We didn't talk.

The administration office was more like a small tower, with a glass window covering one rounded wall in front of me. Various people did various things on their computers, moving them this way and that, talking into little headsets. Steele gestured over to a bag of golf clubs.

'Left there by another guy. I never did like to play golf.' He rounded his desk, another man was sitting on it. He had a full beard and curly hair, both black. 'This is Dr. Max Patel.' Steele introduced the man. Max Patel held out his hand, saying hi. I muttered something back, not shaking his hand. Why does everyone insist on doing that? Did you know more germs can be passed in a handshake than in a kiss? Not that I wanted to kiss the man. I tried asking Steele what I was here for.

'Oh, all in due time, Tony, all in due time.' He winked at me, a gesture I find quite ugly. Or maybe it was just the fact he'd called me Tony.

'It's Anthony. Never Tony.' I replied firmly. Steele looked slightly taken aback, as if he'd never been told things he didn't want to hear before. 'Now if this meeting has no real purpose, then I'd like to ask you where the med. labs are. I've got a banging headache and you're not exactly helping. The two men blinked. There was a silence before Dr. Patel raised off of the desk and told me to follow him.

'You know, we're glad that you're here. Things have been pretty hectic, since I didn't rotate.'

'Why not?' I said. I regretted saying it.

'I guess Pandora just has this hold on me, you know? When you see those forests, you'll be blown away, I'm telling you.' I tried not to reply. 'And you know, it's been a long time since Grace died, so this feel like home again to me. For a year or two…'

'Who's Grace?' I interrupted. Dr. Patel shook his head, as if he was just coming out of a trance.

'Oh…it doesn't matter.'

The med. Lab was a lot like some of the other rooms, but this one was whiter. It gave the place a sterile, comforting look. A man I noticed as the person who'd floated over to me on the ISV came towards us, stepping over files that were on the floor.

'Ah.' He said, smiling. 'Max and Anthony.' Mercifully, he didn't call me Tony and didn't move to shake my hand. I was warming to him already. He had shaved his head and beard, and was now bald. It suited him.

'This is Jayden O'Grady.' Max said. 'Best _human_ doctor on Pandora.' They both laughed. In-jokes. In-jokes are overrated. They only make sense if you've heard them before.

'You've come for something to calm your headache and nausea?' he asked me.

'Yes, please.'

Jayden walked through a door into a storeroom and came out a minute later. He handed me a pill and some water. I took the pill and drank the water, wrinkling my nose at the bitter taste.

'Thank you.' I said.

'Don't mention it.' Jayden said. 'We're all glad you're here. All those missing…' Max raised his eyebrows. 'Oh,' Jayden said. 'You don't know why you're here yet?'

'No.' I said. 'Quiet annoying, if you ask me.'

'You'll be briefed in the morning.' Max said. 'For now, you've got to come with me. I've got something to show you.' He winked at Jayden. 'Come on.'

We walked through the corridors, not speaking this time. Ooh, maybe they got me a present? We turned into a lab and what I saw made me angry and surprised all at once.

'That's what everybody says.' Max grinned.

In-jokes. I hate In-jokes.


	3. Chapter 3: No Such Thing As Coincidence

_In-jokes. I hate In-jokes._

'What is this?' I said to Dr. Patel, not exactly kindly. The man's smile faltered a little, as if he expected me to jump up and down and give him a big hug. I walked closer to the…the thing, waiting for an answer. 'I'm sorry, did that sound like a rhetorical question?' I asked. Just as the nausea from the journey had been slowly seeping away, I was experiencing a different kind of headache. Dr. Patel's expression went from confused, to angry, to patronizing all in the space of about two seconds. Wonderful. Did he think that I didn't know what this was? I swear, people do seem to patronize me at some point or another. Do I look that stupid? Actually, don't answer that.

'It's…it's an Avatar.' Dr. Patel murmured. I stared at him for a few seconds that must have been uncomfortable. For him, not for me. Dr. Patel faltered before saying: 'Your Avatar.' I breathed in slowly, trying to keep my temper from flaring. I could feel a wave of emotion, from anger to fear to…was that excitement? No, couldn't be. I looked up at Dr. Patel, and he stepped back a few steps.

'Why. Do. I. Have. An Avatar?' I said, slowly enunciating the words.

'David…um Mr. Steele thought that it would be beneficial to the investigation.' He replied.

'When in the nine circles of hell did you ask me permission!' I shouted, my temper taking over. It felt quite good actually. It'd been at least five years since I'd been angry.

'We…we didn't.' I looked around, desperately wanting to throw things off of a table for dramatic effect but not finding anything. That just left me looking stupid, flailing my arms somewhere. It's not a nice feeling when you want to punch something but there's nothing around to take your anger out on.

'Goddamnit!' I screamed. 'You lied to me, you bloody lied to me! I don't want an…' I took another deep breath. 'Not telling someone is still lying.' I said, pointing at Dr. Patel. Actually, I'll call him Max. I didn't feel he deserved formality at that precise moment.

'We thought you'd be happy.' Max said back, scratching his hair. I leaned back my head and laughed. To a passer by I imagine I would've seemed crazy. I didn't care. What they think isn't my problem. This, however, was.

'Happy? Oh, can't you see, I'm over the moon and then some!' I tried to layer my words with as much sarcasm as possible. Max actually flinched.

'I'm taking this to Administrator Steele!' I bellowed, storming out of the lab. I stormed back in.

'Where is Administrator Steele!'

Max took me to David Steele, fidgeting all the way. I thought of the Avatar. I guess it was mine. My Avatar. It was like a baby in that tank, twitching and floating. A massive blue baby. And did I really look like that? I was mulling over whether my chin was too big just before we arrived back at the office. I remembered to memorize the way to avoid any future embarrassment. Steele was examining the golf clubs when we walked in.

'What in Pandora's name have you done? An Avatar?' I hissed at him. Frustratingly, he smiled as he put the driver back in the back and took out a nine iron. I thought he didn't like golf? It astonishes me how many people lie these days.

'You like it?' he said. I had to restrain myself from taking the nine-iron and whacking him with it.

'Whether I like it not is not the issue here! And no I don't. The issue is you took my DNA and made one without my permission!'

'Relax, Dowell. You're going to need it at some point or another.'

'I'd be less angry if I knew what I was doing on this godforsaken planet!

'All in good time, my man. It'll be alright, it's just an Avatar.'

'I'm not your man. And no it will not be alright, do you know what could happen to me when I get in those linking things? I could die.'

'It's perfectly safe Tony,' I glared at him. 'Sorry, Anthony.'

'It's not perfectly fine! It's like you've cloned me. How would you feel if I made a clone of you?'

'I'd say, great, I love it. Calm down, Anthony. You've got twenty million dollars of equipment out there, you should be glad.'

I stopped talking, rubbing the bridge of my nose.

'Listen, for the task you've got you'll probably need this Avatar. If you don't want to use it, fine, but it's still going to be decanted and waiting for you to control it. Just cool down and forget about it.'

I wish he'd stop telling me to calm down, I thought. A wave of fatigue hit me, as I was about to reply. I managed a feeble:

'Okay.' I wasn't happy, but I didn't have the energy to argue any more. I was about to leave when I turned back to him. 'I don't trust you though.' With that, I walked out of the room, Max at my tail.

'Sorry for not telling you earlier.' Max said to me as we walked back to the biolabs.

'No you're not.' I replied, feeling tired. We turned into the lab, the automatic doors opening before us. I went over to the Avatar and pulled up a chair. Sitting down, I resisted the urge to close my eyes and looked at the big blue entity in the tube. It twitched and moved slightly, it's eyes closed. It's body was muscular, more so than mine. A long ponytail came from the back of its head. It was…serene in a way. Peaceful, free of the stress of modern life. In it's own little world, dreaming it's avatar dreams. Don't think I was going soft on it, please. I'd prefer to not come over as a big softie. I touched the glass. Guess I'll be in your mind soon, I thought. It _would_ be a shame to have all this equipment and not use it…

Max led me to my chamber not soon after. It was a small room, what some might call cozy if it weren't for the metal walls. It consisted of a bed on the left wall, a desk with a computer on the right. Good. They'd given me a computer. There was also a cupboard to keep my things in. I opened the steel door and saw my rucksack, stitched into the fabric. How nice of them. Closing the door, I sat down on the bed, still in RDA brand clothing. Without bothering to change I lay down, looking at the bland ceiling. It was still a mystery why I was here, and it still felt strange. I felt like a third wheel at the moment, like I didn't belong here. I closed my eyes.

And opened them again. Despite how tired I was, I couldn't sleep. Too many things were going on in my head. I stood up and looked at the clock. 11pm. Not too late. I decided to walk out of my room. There were still a number of people walking around, doing jobs, but the majority of the crowd had gone to bed, I reckoned. I got a few funny looks, but ignored them. The base was still fully lit, and most things were still running. My mind touched on the oxygen systems, then threw those thoughts out of my head. I could do without worrying about breathing. Walking over to a map, I found the little 'you are here', a man with a speech bubble coming from his mouth. A lot of things on the map were yellow. I traced the path to where I wanted to go, and set off.

The med lab doors opened smoothly for me, and I walked in, past the microscopes and other equipment to Jayden's desk. The room was lit by a few lamps, but not by the overhead lights, giving the room a warm feeling despite most things were metal. To my surprise, he wasn't there. This time, it was a woman. She had wavy red hair to her shoulders, and was wearing the standard RDA attire. She looked passably pretty, and didn't seem to be wearing much makeup. Her eyes were a dark brown, I noticed as she looked up from a piece of paper she was writing on. All in all, a pleasant surprise. She was easier on the eyes than Jayden, too.

'Can I help you?' she said in what I made out to be a European accent. French, if I had to guess.

'Um.' I said. 'Have you got any sleeping pills or something? I can't sleep.' She smiled at me. A nice smile, I thought. A little crooked.

'First night on Pandora?' she asked. I nodded. 'You must be the private investigator,' she held out her hand. I didn't take it. What, you think I'm going to shake hands just because she's a woman? Pur-lease.

She lowered her hand, faltering for a second as most people do, then recovering.

'I'm Stéphanie.' She said. 'Stéphanie Bourdette.'

'Anthony Dowell.' I replied.

'Tony, or Anthony?'

'Anthony.'

'Okay. I'm sure I could find something.' She walked into the back room, and I took the opportunity to take a peek at her paperwork. Just a write-up of something or other. Nothing exciting. Damn. She came back quickly, holding a bottle of pills.

'Take these. No more than two at a time, and not with alcohol.' I sniggered.

'We have alcohol here?' I asked.

'Not nearly enough.' She grinned. I decided to take my oppurtunity.

'Do you happen to know why I'm here?' I asked, taking the bottle of pills. She looked into my eyes, confused.

'They haven't told you yet?' she asked. I shook my head, and she sighed.

'I guess I could tell you.' My heart leapt. 'But you didn't hear it from me, okay?' I nodded.

'And I don't know much. All I know…' she leaned in, as if there were more people in the room. 'People have been going missing. The first was about five years ago. Then another 3 years ago, then one just two months ago.' I raised my eyebrows, trying not to look down her top.

What? Don't look at me like that. I'm a man.

'That's all I know.' She said. 'But some people are afraid to leave Hell's Gate, even more so than usual.'

'They were kidnapped outside? In the forest?' She nodded. 'How do we know it wasn't an animal?'

She shook her head.

'I've told you too much.' I nodded, leaning away from her. She looked down at her piece of paper. I thought of saying thanks, but instead just walked out, pills in hand, my brain whirring, thinking.

Missing people? Hmm. Guess I'd find out more in the morning. I returned to my room, took three pills and drifted off into a dreamless sleep.

In the morning I was rudely awoken by Max. He stood in my doorway, arms folded, leaning against the wall. I had slept in my clothes, so I didn't bother changing. Max gave me a disapproving look, so I turned to the mirror above my desk, smoothed my hair down and turned back to him.

'Happy now?' I asked. He just shook his head and gestured for me to follow him. The base was full of life now, people hurrying to and fro, clutching cups of steaming coffee in their hands. I had to maneuver out of the way of several people.

'I saw you went to the med lab last night.' Max said.

'I couldn't sleep. Is that a crime?' Max sighed at me. He seemed grumpy today. We came to a room next to the normal Admin room, and David Steele was waiting, smoking a cigarette. When he saw us enter, he stubbed it out and stood up. The smoke stayed, lingering near the ceiling.

'Right.' He said, not wasting any time. 'Let's get to it.' I stayed stood up whereas Max and Steele sat down. They both gave me another weird look. David cleared his throat.

'Now, I'm going to tell you why you're here.'

'Finally.' I interjected.

'Please don't talk over me.' He snapped. What was up with everybody? Guess they weren't morning people.

'Five years ago, it came to our attention that one of a crew of scientists and soldiers had been kidnapped. I say kidnapped, they disappeared. Not a trace of them could be found. The first person was a soldier, protection for the group. This was a big group, as they'd found a new species of plant and wanted as many samples as possible.'

He slid a piece of paper over to me. On it was a photograph of a man with a large forehead and what looked like a nose that had been broken several times. Above it was his name: John T Stanford, and other bits of information such as blood type and date of birth.

'The group didn't recall anything coming or any noises, he just wasn't there any more.'

'Second person, Sydney Wraith.' Another piece of paper, this time a female with short hair and a crescent shaped scar on her chin.

'The exact same thing happened to the exact same ranking soldier. And again with the third, just two months ago.'

This time it was another man, David Bauer. He stared at the camera with blazing blue eyes.

'We need you to find out where these people went, Dowell.' Steele finished. Immediately started asking questions, turning on the pieces of paper over and grabbing a pen.

'Why wasn't it an animal?' I asked.

'There were no noises, blood, any trace of the person.

'Did they have anything but their rank in common?

'Not really, but I'm not the best judge of that you'd have to ask their friends.' He listed off some names.

'Do you know whereabouts in the forest they were lost?'

'Roughly in the same co-ordinates, within about a square mile of each other.' Max gave me the co-ordinates.

I asked several other questions, ending in 'Can you show me where their rooms are, please?'

Most interesting, I thought. It could be all a coincidence. But I don't believe in coincidences.


	4. Chapter 4: A First Time For Everything

_I don't believe in coincidences._

I put all other things out of my head when I entered John Sanford's room, the first person who'd disappeared. They could wait. This needed to be done as soon as possible. If there was anything resembling evidence in this room, it would have likely been tampered with, as Sanford had been missing the longest. I noticed as we crossed the threshold, there was an absence of something. Christ, they couldn't have, could they? Although, I wouldn't put it past them.

'Something wrong?' Steele asked as I stood still, in the entrance to the room. I turned around, not attempting to hide the annoyance showing on my face.

'Look behind you, David.' I said in a patronizing voice. He eyed me, presumably thinking he could stare me out, then looked behind him.

'What do you see?' There was a long pause, stretching between us in what I supposed was an awkward manner. Didn't really matter to me, to be perfectly honest. 'Well?' I said, trying to sound like a schoolteacher teaching a small child. That was what it felt like. He turned around, looked embarrassed.

'Nothing.' He grumbled. I widened my eyes. I turned to the doctor beside me. Maybe it was the pills last night, maybe it was I was still a little angry over the Avatar, but I felt Max could do with feeling like a fool too.

'Max?' He shook his head.

'It's just the room, what am I looking at?'

'Correct, Dr. Patel, it is 'just' the room. What is missing in this scenario?' His eyes widened. Steele looked at him.

'What?' he inquired.

'Crime-Solving 101, gentlemen. Seal off anywhere there might be evidence. I'm assuming this door has been unlocked?'

'You don't think…'

'Answer the question, David.'

'Yes.'

'How do you know no-one has come in here and taken evidence?'

Another awkward silence.

'Answer: You don't.' I said. I pointed at Max. 'You go and seal off the other two rooms before I go mad with your incompetence.' Max scowled, looked like he might retort, then just decided to do what I said. Steele was looking at me with barely concealed anger. I could do without this. 'And you, leave me to this.' I said, turning around. Steele's voice came out from behind me, the metal walls amplifying it, giving an air of menace.

'Dowell, don't you ever…' I cut him off before he could give a big speech on how he could fire me, I should respect him, blah blah blah.

'David, I could do without this. If you don't want me to investigate this, then go right ahead and fire me. If you make a stupid mistake, I'm going to tell you that you have. This is now officially an investigation, and if you don't do as I ask, you'd be obstructing this investigation and I'd have to look at you as a suspect. Which doesn't mean that you're not a suspect if you do what I say. The only thing you can accomplish by shouting at me and telling me how hard you've worked for this position is to bore me and make me loathe you that little bit more.' I tried smiling sweetly at him. 'So, pretty please, leave me to do my job and I'll leave you to do yours.'

After this he stared into my eyes for a moment, again trying to see who would blink first. In what I took as a desperate attempt to be dramatic, he said:

'I'm watching you, Dowell.'

'And I you, Steele.' He left, looking angry that he didn't get the last word. I wasn't lying when I said he was a suspect. He could have easily not locked the doors because he wanted to go in and steal something. But I didn't have all of the information yet. I walked further into the room. It was basically a carbon copy of my room, and if it weren't for the family picture and the freshly made bed, and several other personal items around, It would have been exactly the same. I picked up the photo. I didn't bother wearing gloves, they could have shipped a forensics team over if they wanted to but they didn't have the equipment, money, or incentive to want to come over to Pandora to make them come over.

On the photo was a picture of Stanford and what I presumed was his other half, or whatever you called them these days. A girlfriend, or a wife. The photo was 3-D, showing the pair smiling at the camera, the sun shining behind them. A picture of happiness. The girl was what you'd call handsome, her short hair complimenting her face. I wondered how she felt about Mr. Stanford coming to Pandora for a chunk of her life. I guessed she was an ex. It would be hard to come to Pandora with someone waiting for you back home. I began to do the math but stopped, my mind instead being drawn to other things. She reminded me of…No. No, she didn't. Anyway, that was behind me. It happened to a different man.

I shook myself out of the trance. I needed to get to work. I looked around the room, then went through the usual searching process. I looked under the mattress, on the shelves, inside the wardrobe. I found deodorant, clothes and other things that were of little significance. I sighed. It was rarely this easy. I sat down at the desk, looking for a switch on the computer in front of me. I found none. I moved the mouse and nothing happened either. I tried touching the screen - again nothing. I leaned out of the room, pointing at a man with a black moustache.

'You! Turn this computer on.' I said. He walked over, into the room and pressed a few keys on the keyboard together. I got him to show me how to do it, and made him leave. Once everything had been loaded, I tired clicking around, not that there was much. The only thing I could find worth seeing was a few text files filled with haiku's, and video logs. I read the haiku's, not because it was going to help me with the investigation, but because I liked them. One read:

Forest of beauty

Has dangers hidden within

I should be paid more

I cracked a smile at that, then closed down the text and watched the logs. They weren't of much use, mostly with happy thoughts of Pandora, the forest and how he enjoyed the company of a particular lady. I frowned, looking over at the photo. There was a little on the plant that Steele had mentioned, but nothing more than I already knew. I stood up, shifting in my shirt. It was too itchy. I took one last look at the scene, then walked out. There was nothing else to be seen here. In the corridor, I dimly realized I didn't know where to go. Maybe I shouldn't have been so hard on the guys. Nah, just kidding. I stared at the people walking past, most not paying attention to each other. I didn't feel like talking to another random person, it took too much effort.

'Anthony.' I heard a woman's voice to the right of me. It was Stéphanie. I didn't smile, but at least I didn't have to ask someone without a pretty face.

'Ms. Bourdette.' I said. 'Hello.' Her hair was in a ponytail today, accentuating the shape of her face.

'Are you _investigating?_' She made air quotes when she said the last word. I thought for a second, then said:

'No.'

'Want to go and get some coffee?'

'Is it that stuff that tastes like it's been strained through a sock? I don't like that stuff.' She smiled.

'I'll make us some myself.'

We entered a small kitchen extension of a long area, the latter of which had red sofas with five people sitting and chatting. There was a coffee machine sitting on a counter with not much else on it apart from a few mugs. A sink was on another counter, and a few cupboards were above us. The kitchen extension was less of a room and more of a corner, with barely just enough room for two people to stand side by side. I stood outside it, leaning against the wall, looking in. The people behind us talked about deadlines and Avatars and mountains.

'Do you take sugar?' She asked. I shook my head. 'Milk?' I nodded. That wasn't exactly how I liked my coffee, but I wasn't about to go telling Ms. Bourdette my preference in hot drinks. There's a lot you can take away from knowing how a person takes their coffee. I'm not about to tell you how I really like coffee, now. That's a secret. Stéphanie put half a sugar and a drop of milk in hers. She handed me mine and sat down on one of the sofas. I walked past her and sat on the one away from most of the people. She raised an eyebrow and walked over to where I was sat. She didn't say anything, just sat down facing me. I looked into her brown eyes. She leveled my gaze.

'I just noticed,' She said, blowing the steam from her cup delicately. 'Your eyes are a different colour.' I smiled.

'You just noticed that?' I asked. She grinned.

'We're not all Private Investigators.' She sipped at her coffee. 'One is green and one is blue.'

'I know.' She grinned.

'I like it.' I shrugged and took a sip from the coffee. We stayed in silence for a minute or two, not breaking our gaze from each other's eyes.

'I heard you got an Avatar.' She said to me after a while.

'I don't like it.'

'Why not?'

'They made it without my permission.'

'It's not the Avatar's fault.'

'Just because everyone loves them doesn't mean I have to.'

'What's not to love?'

'The fact that you're inside them. The millions of things that could go wrong inside the linking chamber.'

'It's safe enough. I've never seen anything go wrong.'

'There's a first time for everything.'

'It's tried and tested, and it's just like a bigger, leaner version of you.'

'It's like a clone, I don't want another me, one is bad enough.'

'Don't talk like that. You should at least give it a try.'

'My mother said I didn't have to do anything I didn't want to.'

'Oh, come on, you're saying that not even a small bit of you wants to try it?'

'It's overrated anyway. It's just a forest.'

'How can you say that when you haven't seen it yet?'

'I just did.'

'Now you're being childish.'

'So what?'

'Stop it. You should try, you might like it.'

'That's what they said about cocaine.'

'You've done cocaine?'

'I didn't say that.'

Stéphanie rubbed her eyes.

'I'm talking for nothing here,' She leaned forward, coming into my personal space. I tried to back away. Her hair smelled of cinnamon. 'All I'm saying is try it.'

I put my coffee on a desk behind me. 'Thanks for the coffee.' I forced a smile, and stood up. 'Could you show me David Bauer's bedroom please?' She stood up, not saying anything. She lead me through winding corridors to a room that now had pathetic looking orange tape in front of it.

'Here we are.' Stéphanie said. 'You're a strange one, Anthony.' She smiled. 'See you later.' I didn't say goodbye, instead just bent under the tape and entered Bauer's room. I was just about wishing for some originality in these rooms. I stared at the carbon copy of the other rooms that I'd seen. There was something wrong about this one. I could feel it in the air, like something pressing down on me, a niggling feeling at the back of my head, telling me that something was out of place. I surveyed the room once again, taking in everything. It was then I noticed it.

The problem was the shelves. I knelt down beside the bed. One of the drawers wouldn't go in properly. I looked inside and found crumpled pairs of socks. An idea came to my mind. I took out the other drawer and swapped the two around. This time the drawer fit perfectly. I stood up, mentally adding another fact to the case.

Someone had been in this room.

Someone had searched this room and most likely taken something.

* * *

><p><strong>Sorry for the relatively long wait between Chapters 3 and 4, I've just been busy :)<strong>


	5. Chapter 5: The Avatar

_Someone had searched this room and most likely taken something._

I stood still in the room, wiggling my fingers and clicking my tongue. I breathed out slowly and sat down at the desk. I couldn't guess as to what had been stolen, or indeed if anything had been stolen at all. Although I knew that someone was looking for something. All because they took the drawers out and didn't put them back properly. I thought that if they'd bothered to look behind the drawers they would have looked everywhere else. But why had they looked in Bauers room and not in Sanfords? Or they might have looked in Sanford's room and just been more careful. I couldn't be sure, and it made me angry. I took a few deep breaths, and counted backwards, like my counselor had told my other self to, all those years ago. It seemed like it was something people did in these situations. Yet I doubt anyone had been in this situation. I sighed again, and turned the computer on. I doubted I'd find anything, but decided to look anyway. As it turns out, I did.

The only thing I found on Bauers computer was video logs. No haiku's this time. What a shame. But what I found was more interesting than what I'd found before. I clicked on the most recent one, recorded a week or so after he disappeared. He was in his forties or so, and the lines on his face were just becoming pronounced. He was sweating and the look on his face was one of urgency, like he needed to say what was in this video log. His blue eyes were so bright they seemed to pierce my skull and stare into my mind. To put in short, he looked scared. The words came out of his mouth in a long stream. It went a little something like this:

'The plant…no. We shouldn't be doing this, it's way too dangerous. I know about Stanford, I _know _about Wraith! Jesus, I shouldn't be doing this, they don't pay us enough. We keep going out, and to what end? Ah, Jesus, my head hurts so much. I need to…'

The rest was muffled as he got up, then realized he needed to turn the camera off, and did so. Eager to find new information, I looked at the other logs. There was nothing else like the last one recorded. He seemed pretty calm until the last one, which made him look as if he'd aged ten years. I turned away from the computer, angry.

This was all substance and no information. The information I had gathered was that of course, Bauer knew about something that happened- whatever that was. That and his head hurt. It wasn't enough information. Part of me knew that I had to go into the Avatar, but another part of me- the part that talked incessantly over the sensible part- told me that it was too dangerous, I could die- well you've heard it before. If there was one thing that annoyed me and excited me at the same time it was things like this. I stood up, stretching my arms and cracking my knuckles. After the coffee, my drowsiness had worn off, leaving me alert. Better late than never. I looked back at the screen, running my tongue along my teeth and thinking about how the RDA toothbrush wasn't very effective at what it was supposed to do. I was about to walk out when something caught my eye. I turned around, moving to look at the keyboard. A bit of white was poking out from under it. I quickly knelt down and moved the keyboard. The little bit of white was the corner of a piece of paper. On it, was a quickly scrawled number:

7716

I stuffed it in my pocket, wondering what it was. I'd find out. I left the room, ripping through the tape. I was confident I'd found everything there was to see in the room. I left the tape hanging there, forgotten. The base was still buzzing with activity, everyone moving with a purpose, everyone with a job to do. Some people took long confident strides, others hurried along, their hands shielding their cups. Why was everyone always drinking? Maybe they were all hurrying to the toilet. Searching Wraith's room turned up nothing. I licked my lips. The leads had more or less dried up, and the only concrete evidence that I had was the four numbers, and I had no idea what they meant. Bauer was obviously spooked by something, and someone had searched Stanford's room. The only problem, and what a problem it was, ladies and gentlemen, was I had no suspects, apart from all of Hell's Gate. My options were narrowing, and it was looking more and more likely that I would have to do the unthinkable. If I could avoid going into the avatar, I would. I didn't want to risk my life to step into a big blue clone and bumble about like an idiot.

I went back to my room and lay down on the bed. As soon as my back touched the mattress I leaped up, beginning to pace to and fro. I didn't want to, I wasn't going to. That little voice that seems to always want to do what you don't want to sparked into action.

But you're going to aren't you? The thing is, Tony, if that is your real name, this case has perked you up, hasn't it? You just can't resist finding the person that did this; you can't resist a good riddle a good problem, can you? Oooh, you're going to go into that Avatar, you know it and I know it and everyone else knows it, it's just a matter of time. You betcha, Tony, it's only a matter of time.

I clicked my tongue. I stormed out of my room, making a beeline for the linking room, following signs and bumping into people. If they didn't want to bump into me, they should move.

The linking room was basically a circle with the linking chambers around the raised platform in the center. It looked like one or two people were already in Avatars. Max spotted me and smiled, all previous anger forgotten. He was holding a tablet with blue menus on it, tucked under his arm.

'Anthony!' He said from the platform. I didn't say anything, instead I looked at the linking chambers that already had people in them. The coffin-like structures were inside circles, with numerous screens displaying vital information. I thought of being inside the small bed, closed in by a clamshell. A sudden wave of nausea struck me, and I suddenly didn't want to go in. I felt like a child at the dentists, hearing the drill and imagining all sorts of things that could go wrong. At least in dentists they had magazines. I was about to turn away and leave when Max grabbed my shoulder. I shook him off as quickly as I could. Max's smile faltered.

'Are you alright, Anthony?' Max said, looking into my eyes. I looked back, annoyed.

'I'm fine.' I said matter-of-factly.

'Are you sure?'

'Do I look seven years old? I'm fine.'

Max bit his lip and nodded.

'Alright. Are you here to go in your Avatar?'

'No, I'm here to buy milk. Yes, Max. I'm here to go into the Avatar.' I replied, stressing the.

Max turned around, gesturing for me to follow.

'You know it's perfectly okay to be nervous. Most people are, the first time. And considering you don't have any training, it might take a while to get used to it.' He stopped at one of the free units. 'How's the investigation going?'

I made a show of sighing.

'I'm not going to tell you.' I said.

'What, I'm not a suspect, am I?' Max smiled.

'Yes.' I said. His smile dropped fast.

'I'm a suspect?'

'Everyone is. Don't take it personal, Dr. Patel. Or take it personally, I couldn't care less. It would be more interesting if you did.' Max turned and rubbed his eyes. He turned back not smiling, but not exactly frowning either. Admirable.

'Do you want to try and get in?' I chose not to speak back at that. I didn't know what he could do to me when I was in there. I pressed the green substance that surrounded a shape of a human. To my disgust, it molded around my finger and was surprisingly warm. I lifted my finger up and wiped it on my trousers. I hauled myself up and lay down inside the unit. Just being inside it made me nervous, but I didn't move to get out. Max leaned over, putting a metal plate over me. The sense of feeling trapped intensified.

'Arms in, Legs in, head down.' Max said with the air of someone who had said it a hundred times. He typed things in on screens above me, and after a while he leaned back to me.

'Relax and let your mind go blank. Try not to think of anything, you'll be perfectly okay, we have medical staff who have trained years to…'

I interrupted him.

'Max, Cut the opening speech, okay? I want to get this done.' Max closed the lid on me. My breathing quickened. I felt like I was in a cardboard box, about to be burned to a cinder. My hands shook and that little voice told me of things that could happen, things that would happen. I heard a quiet humming that moved the chamber slightly, and the unit smoothly glided backwards into the hole. I closed my eyes, trying to slow my breathing, my heart pumping fast in my chest, cold sweat coating my face. The small walls seemed to be closing in around me. My hands were clenched into fists, and I suddenly felt very hot.

I remembered what Max said, and tried to make my mind go blank. Then, in a flash, there were colours, bright colours, and for a second I felt happy. Then my eyes opened.

I was in the linking unit, but I was on a medical bed. I was the only person in the unit, yet there were several people stood over me. I was in two places at once, and I felt suddenly, violently sick. I managed to move my head and saw one of my arms, one of it's arms, a long blue, striped arm laying on the bed. I couldn't move the body, the long, too tall body. I closed my eyes again, scared, so scared. I was going to die.

Then, the colours came again. Then the chamber moving out. Dribble was running down my chin, and I still felt sick, my heart still beat fast, my forehead felt cold and hot at the same time. Suddenly yet smoothly, the clamshell top opened, the metal plate along with it. I heard people talking. I took a breath of air, and as soon as I could move my body I rolled out of the unit, hitting the floor. People clustered around me, and that crushing feeling of claustrophobia hit me again. I got up quickly and shakily, stumbling along, trying to run away from the chamber. The wave of nausea hit me again, and I threw up on the floor. The lights were too bright, and I had to leave. That's all I could think about. I ran into the nearest bedroom and threw myself on the bed, shaking.

It seems that my fears weren't misplaced after all.


	6. Chapter 6: This Isn't Over

_It seems that my fears weren't misplaced after all._

I knew it was a bad idea to go into the Avatar, I just knew it. I didn't think of myself as necessarily claustrophobic, but the only time a person should be that close to four walls, it's when they're dead. As I lay on the bed, completely oblivious to the swarm of people standing outside the door, the voice came again.

Oooh, Tony, you've made a scene now. You could've stopped yourself from being sick, you could've stayed in that Avatar and you know it. You made yourself sick, made it so that you'd come out as soon as you were in. That's it, isn't it Tony? You're scared, is that right? That you might like it? Everybody loves being in one of those bodies. Sorta like a second skin, a fresh beginning. But of course, you don't want that, you're being difficult, you're…

I forced myself to stop thinking like that. I couldn't go into my…_the_ Avatar because I didn't have any training, that was it. My mind reeled and spun as I remembered what happened. The bright lights, being in two places at once, seeing that horribly long blue arm. Throwing up on the floor. My head was pounding and my mouth had that weird, sweet acidic aftertaste from throwing up. The voices around me were just white noise, I had my eyes clamped shut, my body in the fetal position. Can't say that I enjoyed people seeing me like this, maybe it ruined my pristine image? Who am I kidding, I didn't have an image.

I vaguely felt the presence of someone coming up to me. Their voice washed over me, and I didn't make any effort to move. As the voice persisted, my hearing got a tiny bit better, tuning out the violent throbbing in my head.

'…Anthony…' I could make out. 'Sick…help…okay.' The room was still spinning, and I felt like I was going to throw up again. Another voice entered the equation, this one higher.

'…Out…him…stop!' The view I had seen through the Avatars eyes were burned into my retinas. The white, sterile room. The people in plastic masks staring down at me, smiling like I should have been happy, like I should have been grateful. All thoughts of the investigation were pushed out of my mind, all I could think about was the headache, the image, and the faint voices, that sounded close but at the same time very far away.

I _told _them it would go wrong, I told them it would happen to me, but they didn't believe me, did they? Oh, yeah Anthony, it'll be fine, we do this every day, blah blah bloody blah. You're just being paranoid! You're just being psycho! Hey have you seen that new guy? What a jerk! A warm hand touching my shoulder pulled me out of my thoughts. My shivering calmed. Another hand touched me, gently pushing me to a sitting position. I didn't open my eyes. Again, gently, the person took me into their arms and then led me out through the crowd of faceless people.

The next thing I remember is sitting down with a blanket wrapped around my shoulders. The room didn't seem quite as bright, and my headache was dumbing down, relegating itself to a minor niggle at the back of my head. My eyelids felt heavy, but I wasn't about to drop off. I didn't know where I was. Actually, scratch that, I was in the coffee room I had shared that gleeful conversation with Stéphanie. Thinking about it for more than a few seconds told me it was probably her that had taken me here. I hugged the blanket to myself, as I was still cold. Avatars. Pfft, more trouble than they are worth.

Part of me told me that I was being ridiculous, I should pick myself off of the ground and get into that Avatar. The other, larger, part of me quivered at even going back inside the linking room. My mind was torn between the two viewpoints when I felt someone enter the room. Suprisingly, it was Jayden he gave an apprehensive smile when I looked up at him. He faltered when he saw me scowling, but sat down on the sofa with me. Granted, he was as far away from me as he could be whilst still being sat on the same piece of furniture, but give the guy some credit. Actually, don't. I wasn't feeling in a particularly selfless mood at that moment in time. After a minute of uncomfortable (for him) silence, he started talking.

'Are you okay?' He said, his hands between his knees. I scowled even more. Why do people always say that? I bet that if I'd been run through with one of those indigenous arrows they'd be asking me if I was alright. Oh no, you're obviously hurt right now, I know what to do, ask you if you're all right!

I replied with a simple:

'What does it look like?' Jayden visibly flinched.

'Sorry,' he said back, his voice quiet. 'It's perfectly normal for…'

I interrupted him, tearing my gaze from the floor and looking straight into my eyes. Maybe he saw a bit of mad in there, so sue me.

'I don't care if having a panic attack is _normal_, I don't care that you can book me for some therapy sessions, I don't care that people out there are laughing at the new boy, I. Don't. Want. To. Go. Back.'

Jayden nodded slightly, sniffed, then stood up.

'Nobody's laughing at you, Tony.'

'GO!' I said throwing a mug at him for dramatic effect. It flew past him and shattered against the wall, the white shards dropping on the floor. Jayden quickly turned and walked quickly out. I stood up, yelling to him.

'And don't call me that name again!'

It didn't take long for me to feel a little foolish for breaking the mug. If anything, it ruined a perfectly good cup. I slumped down onto the sofa, sighing and rubbing my eyes. It was a bad idea even coming to Pandora. At least back home it was familiar, I didn't have to talk to all these people. It was then that realization dawned on me. I was on an alien planet, light-years away from Earth. It smacked me right between the eyes, making my head hurt again. It really does take a while to sink in. I could die on this planet and never see home again. I shrugged the blanket off and closed my eyes.

'Anthony?' I opened them. Stood before me was Stéphanie. At least she wouldn't be as annoying at bald Jayden. I haste to say that that wasn't a small smile on my lips, my cheeks were just tired of being in the same position. Ahem. She smiled and sat down on the sofa, away from me but closer than Jayden had been.

'That was quite a show.' She said, looking into my eyes. Thank Eywa she didn't ask me if I was all right. I looked back into her dark brown eyes, feeling a bit more comfortable.

'I tried.' I said back.

'They're cleaning up your sick now.'

'That's a lovely image.'

'You did it.'

'You said that that you'd never seen anything go wrong, it's your fault.'

'You said there's a first time for everything, so you were right…You do know you need to use it, right?'

'I don't need to do anything.'

'If you want to get paid, then yes you do.'

'I could solve this case without that thing.' I paused, making a show of thinking. 'Max, it's Max. Can I go home now?'

Stéphanie tried not to smile but still did.

'I'm being serious here, Anthony. And would it kill you to not scare Jayden by breaking our mugs?' She got up and went into the little kitchen. She came back with a dustpan and brush.

'Where would we be without the best human doctor on Pandora?' She spread a layer of sarcasm over her words. Kneeling down, Stéphanie brushed the broken mug into the dustpan and put them into the bin that was just outside the kitchen.

After a minute of silence as she came over and sat back down, a little closer this time, I started to speak.

'I know that I need to go inside the Avatar. There are too many things in this case that are vague. I need to use it, but I don't know how.'

'You just need to get used to it.'

I shook my head.

'I don't think I can. Being inside that coffin, it's horrible. There are any number of things that could go even more wrong than they did today.' I was staring at the ground now. 'I could feel the walls closing in on me, and it was like being in two places at once. Going in that thing, it's not natural.' (I know that being blasted off into space isn't natural either, but I wasn't particularly fond of that)

'No, it isn't.' Stéphanie replied. 'I heard Jake got used to it quickly, but that was him and this is you.'

'Jake?' I asked.

'He was here a while back, before I came here. He was the leader of the war you probably heard about.' I didn't, I wasn't really interested. 'He's still here, but he's a Na'vi now. Leader of the Omaticaya. There's a word for it, but I forget.'

Why would anyone want to be on this godforsaken planet forever?

'I know what you're thinking,' Stéphanie said. 'When you see the forest for yourself, in person, you'll be blown away.'

'I doubt it.'

'Don't shun it, mister.'

'I'd like to talk to this Jake, if I could use the bloody Avatar. But if it's a choice between going inside that box again or not, I'll pass, thanks.'

'Anthony…' She looked into my eyes. 'I'm not going to pretend that I know what you're going through. Hell, I hardly know you. But we can work around this. The people are here to help the investigation. We want it solved as much as you do.' With that, she stood up and walked towards the door. 'I'll see you around. Don't give up.' What a corny line.

But she was right, I suppose. Every inch of me didn't want to go back, but I knew that I had to. I stood up and walked out of the room. I caught up to Stéphanie.

'I want to try again.' I said.

She looked at me incredulously.

'I didn't mean this soon, you only tried it a few hours ago!'

'I'm fine, I'm feeling fine, I can do this.' I tried to walk past but she put a hand on my chest.

'Anthony, I'm not letting you do this. Go to Jayden. He can help you.' I stared at her. Damnit, she was right. Why was she always right? Begrudgingly, I nodded. 'He's in the med room.' I walked over to a keypad and punched in some numbers. Stéphanie looked puzzled.

'Not that way, silly. Come one, I'll walk you over.'

'No, I know where it is.' I beamed at her, turned around and left her looking confused, and quite possibly considering if I was mad or not.

When I got to the med lab Jayden flinched at the sight of me. All this flinching, it wasn't healthy.

'Stéphanie said that you could help me.' Jayden's nostrils flared.

'What was that for?' I asked.

'What?'

'Your nostrils flared.'

'Oh shut up, Anthony.'

'Oh good, you've got my name right, who told you that?'

'Will you stop being sarcastic for once?' Jayden said in a raised voice. 'I don't know what you're doing to Stéphanie, but I don't like it.' I was taken aback. Against my better judgement, I rose to the challenge.

'Excuse me?' I said, raising my own voice this time.

'Hmm?' Jayden was stood up now.

'What do you mean, what I'm doing to her?'

'You've obviously done something, Anthony. Nobody likes you, nobody should like you.'

'Oh shut-up Jayden and stop being so childish.'

'Me! Childish! That's rich coming from someone who threw a mug at me!'

'I'd do it again I tell you!' I yelled, putting on an evil villain type voice.

'You're crazy.'

I tried to flash him my best insane eyes look. He shook his head.

'I haven't got time for this.' He scribbled down a note. 'Go see Billy, he can help you. I'm only doing this because Stéphanie would want me to.'

I rolled my eyes.

'Where is he?' I asked.

'In the room two doors down. Tell him I sent you.' He handed me his note. 'Give this to him. This isn't over, Tony.' He said, emphasizing the Tony.

I looked at him for a second, at his deadly serious face, then threw back my head and laughed. Jayden's tough-guy look fell from his face. I kept laughing, the sound filling the room and bouncing off the walls. It felt surprisingly good to laugh. I let it come out as loud as I could, trying to put him down as much as I could.

'This isn't…isn't...' I burst out laughing again, doubling over and letting it flow from my stomach all the way to the med lab. I wiped at my eyes. 'That's a good one.' I left, still chuckling to myself, leaving little Jayden feeling more foolish than he ever would have done if I'd directly confronted him.

Still laughing, I strode over the other side of the corridor and punched in a code on the keypad on the wall. All the keys turn red, and it made a buzzing sound. I did the same with the door next to it, and the same thing happened. I got some funny looks from some people walking past. So, I had to go and see Billy, eh?

At the very least, he would be a new suspect.

* * *

><p><strong>Sorry for the real long wait, this time. Had a lot of work, and of course, Skyrim came out :D <strong>


	7. Chapter 7: To Us, And Pandora

_At the very least, he would be a new suspect._

Imagine my surprise boy and girls, when I opened the door to the room Jayden had pointed me to and found out Billy was a girl. Billie. How sexist of me. The keypad next to the door was already green, signaling that the door was unlocked. Inside the room there was a comfortable looking chair that the girl in question was sat on and an uncomfortable looking sofa next to it. Oh, I thought, oh he didn't. This room actually had a carpet, which felt unusually soft after standing on metal day in day out. The woman swiveled round on her chair.

Oh, it swivels too, marvelous.

She had red hair, obviously dyed, and a square-ish chin, giving her a handsome look. She was wearing actual clothes, I mean actual, non-branded, non RDA clothes. She smiled at me, and I frowned.

'Jayden said you needed my help.' Her voice was soft, sounding smooth like honey on bread. I frowned some more, then muttered something like:

'Wrong room.' I turned around, pushing the door when I should have pulled.

'Anthony, come on.' I turned around to face her.

'Billy?'

'Billie.'

'Billie, I'm not doing this.' I closed my eyes, still feeling sick from my bout with the linking chamber. I breathed in deeply.

'I saw you coming out of your pod, I think you do need my help.'

'I do not need anybody's help. It was just sickness.'

She smiled again and gestured toward the sofa.

'Take a seat.' She said.

I eyed the brown leather sofa, breathing deeply. I stared at the wrinkles in the material, a cushion placed at the head to try and invite the unwilling participant. I lifted my gaze to the pictures of the room, simple flowers and scenes of Pandora, meant to calm and lull the unwilling participant into a false sense of security. I saw a hard-looking chair in the corner.

'Fine.' I replied, walking over, picking up the chair and moving it in front of Billie. I sat down, placing my elbows on my knees and my hands propping my chin up. 'Seat taken.' She looked confused, then resigned herself to not asking. Would you want to ask?

'Anthony.' She smiled again. Smiled far too much, this thirty-something woman. 'You obviously have some problems with linking with your Avatar, but I'm not a scientist. Tell me about…' I waved my hand to cut her off. 'What, what's wrong?'

I stared into her eyes. 'I told you, Billie, I don't need your help.' I tried to put on a soft voice, but it probably came out as annoyed. 'I was just sick. I can get used to it by myself, it's only a matter of time before I can roll right into that Avatar and control it just fine.' I leaned back, looking once more around the room. 'This was just one time, it's just…I can do it, okay? Anyway, I don't need to prove myself to you or any other goddamn person on this planet. It's not like I came here because I wanted to, I came here because I had to, alright? So you…people, just get off of my back, I've got an investigation to run.' I stood up, leaving the hard fold-up chair in the middle of the room and strode towards the door. From behind me came her voice again.

'Anthony.'

For some reason I stopped. I didn't turn, just stared out of the door way and across the hall.

'Nobody's saying that you need to prove yourself, just…' I interrupted her, still staring out of the door, the corridor turning sharply right and into a large open plan area.

'Just after ten one-hour sessions you'll cure me?' I sneered even though she couldn't hear me. 'I don't need curing.' I walked out of the door and away from the room, stopping to press some buttons on a keypad, the soft plastic lighting up red. After getting lost a few times, I eventually made it to the Administrators office. I noticed the gold clubs propped up against the wall, a few lying on the floor beside the bag. Steele was bent over his desk, filling in some paperwork. A mug with the Four Circles Of The RDA emblazoned on it was on the desk, without a coaster. An ashtray was clean and free of any ashes whatsoever, on the corner of his desk. In the middle was a mound of paper.

'You ought to get a coaster for that mug, you'll mark the table.' I announced. Without looking up, Steele said:

'Dowell. What do you want? How's the investigation going?' He wrote furiously with his pen, his handwriting scrawled and messy.

'I need to see the Team that was out on all three times someone went missing. I'm not telling you how the investigation's going.' Steele paused, and I half expected steam to come swirling out of the pen tip.

'Two of them are out right now. The other two are Devlin and um…' He moved some paper around. 'Jayden. I believe you've already met.'

My heart skipped a beat, time seemed to slow, and my eyes widened, all of that stuff. I swallowed, closing my eyes for a second or two.

'Why wasn't I told about this earlier?' I muttered, trying to keep my cool. I flexed my fingers at my sides. Steele looked at me like I was stupid.

'You never asked.'

I never…Damnit. I tried to keep my cool, but I could feel the anger inside me bubbling toward the surface, threatening to display itself and destroy all good mugs everywhere. I'd start with that one on Steele's desk. I leant down on the desk, not taking a seat but coming very close to Steele's face.

'You are supposed to tell me these things. You should have told me in the briefing.' I said slowly.

'Well, I didn't, okay? Now please get out of my office. '

I did as he asked, more questions being added to the whirlwind that is our minds. I'd confront him later. I didn't, okay? Who was this guy? I left the office wondering if he really wanted the case solving. More added to his file, then. I bumped into a man on the way out, he must have been about five foot six. He just avoided spilling hot tea all over me, so I shouted at him and marched down the stairs even more angry than I was before, ready to run into Jayden's office and rip his throat out.

The people around Hell's Gate were thinning now, the night causing them to stop working. Other people were still around, just not as many as the huge crowds I saw in the morning. The lighting seemed brighter and more garish at this time, but I could still see threw windows that it was slowly darkening on the base. I strode to Jayden's office, throwing open the door and rushing in. Luckily, he was sitting at the desk. I shouted at him before I reached it.

'Why didn't you tell me you were on the teams?'

'What teams?' Jayden asked, sneering at me.

'The teams where the people went missing! You know, the whole reason I'm here!' Jayden's face seemed to fall, then he resumed trying to look disgusted at me.

'You never asked.'

'Goddamnit, Jayden I don't have to ask for things like this! If it can help the investigation, you tell me!'

'I don't have to tell you anything.'

'I think you'll find you do. I'm going to solve this case, and if that means tearing down this whole base to find out what the hell happened, well that's what it takes.'

'So, what you're interrogating me now?' I looked at him for a second, wanting to punch him.

'No.' I said. I walked to the open door, closed it, and returned to the desk. 'Now I'm interrogating you.' Jayden examined me, then threw up his arms.

'This is stupid. I need to do work.' He got up from his chair and walked towards the room behind him.

'Jayden.' I said, trying to be authoritative. 'Sit down.'

'You're not the boss of me.'

'If you've got nothing to hide, then you wouldn't be doing this. If there's something you're not telling me, and I wouldn't put it past you, I'll find out somehow.'

Jayden stood in the doorway, staring off into space He raised a finger, as if he was going to make a point, faltered, then raised it again.

'You ever think I'm doing this because I don't like you?'

I wiped a spot of dust off of the desk.

'This isn't about whether you like me or not, this is about finding out where these people have gone. They had families, and if you know anything about it then I need to know.' He seemed to contemplate this, looking out of the window to the left of me. All I could see was the compound, and a night sky filled with stars.

_Not bad,_ I thought.

'I haven't got anything to tell you, Dowell.' Jayden said. 'You need to think about your people skills. There's a reason people don't like you.'

I stared at the sky outside, the planet hanging in the air, a big orb stuck on the landscape.

'I want you to stop talking to Stéphanie.' He said finally. Is that what this was about? And he said I was crazy. I breathed out heavily, moving my eyes from Polyphemus to Jayden's eyes.

'I'm not going to stop talking to a suspect because you tell me to.'

'She's a suspect?'

I leaned forward.

'Everyone is. Now sit down.' He shook his head.

'You don't go anywhere near her, you hear?' It was my turn to shake my head.

'Can't say that. This isn't a playground, keep your crushes away from my investigation.

'I don't have a crush.'

'For God's sake Jayden, I don't have to be an investigator to see that.'

I heard the door open behind me. Jayden looked at the person behind me. I didn't move my gaze.

'Steph, get out of here.' He said. I smiled. Steph, how cute.

'No, Stéphanie, stay.' I said, emphasizing the é

Jayden looked at me, venom in his eyes. Then he stormed out of the room. On the way, he shouted:

'And stop looking into everyone's eyes all the time!'

I turned around in my chair, seeing Stéphanie stood in the middle of the room, looking confused. I shrugged, turning as she walked over to me and behind the desk.

'I get the feeling he doesn't like me.' I said. Stéphanie smiled.

'What are you doing here?' She asked, not unkindly.

'I was talking to Jayden, but it seems he left. I don't want to disturb you.' I said, about to get up. Stéphanie put her hand out.

'No, stay. I mean, if you don't have anything else to do. I've got work, but I can put that off.' I looked at the clock. It was 10:18.

'Okay.' I replied. Stéphanie grinned, then stood up, moving into the room behind her.

'Stay right there.' She said. I did so, thinking about the case.

So Jayden was in the team, and three people went missing. He didn't want to tell me something that was for sure. He'd just gone right up on my list of suspects. I thought again of the numbers found in Bauer's room. What could they mean? It was no use speculating; I didn't have any facts, just the number.

Stéphanie came back out with two whiskey glasses and what looked like a half-empty bottle of scotch. I widened my eyes.

'I knew you had alcohol, but back there? And scotch too.' I said.

She poured us both a glass, then leant back in her chair, her drink in her hand.

'I feel like a toast is in order.' Stephanie said. Her eyes seemed all the more…more…something in the dim light. She flicked her red hair over her shoulder. I wondered for a second what I was doing, then put it down to investigation. Yep, that's what it was. I licked my lips.

'What to?' I asked, looking down into the dark liquid. She shrugged, looking up.

'I don't know…' We thought for a moment. 'Pandora.' She said. I looked at her as if to say: seriously?

She laughed.

'Okay. To you.' I shifted in my seat. She looked into my eyes, a fire burning somewhere, quietly in them. It wasn't obvious at first, but then you saw that sparkle, that fire. I lifted my glass.

'A toast. To just being drunk.' I offered.

Stéphanie raised an eyebrow. She raised her glass and we put them together, the glass making a _chink_ sound that reverberated around the room. I took a sip, then moved my eyes from the beautiful woman sat across from me to the world outside the window. I raised my glass to my lips and downed the contents, the scotch burning my throat and settling in my stomach.

At the next drink I requested another toast.

'To us, and Pandora.' I said. Stéphanie smiled her crooked smile and I felt a grin creep up on me.

'To us, and Pandora.'


	8. Chapter 8: Pride in the way of Beauty

_'To us, and Pandora.'_

That night, when I went back to my room after staying up into the early morning, I couldn't sleep. I tossed and turned, took sleeping pills, paced up and down my room. It didn't work, I couldn't sleep. It was something that had happened regularly on Earth, and it didn't seem any different on Pandora. My mind was full of information and questions, but instead of being neat and tidied away, they were like a tornado in my head, forcing me to stay awake. The alcohol didn't really help either. I don't know if you've ever been awake long enough to experience the time from being drunk to having a hangover when you're not asleep. If you haven't, it's not pleasant. I lay in my entirely too hard bed, a cold sweat washing over me and my head starting to pound.

I'd been in this situation too many times, trying to go to sleep but having too much to think about. I could feel the time slowly going forward, each second feeling like five. I looked at the clock, turning on the light. It read 2:16am. I rolled out of bed, feeling utterly and completely bored. I contemplated doing work, but that was a problem. I couldn't really do anything without using an Avatar, talking to people, all that detective-y stuff. Speculation without facts would just distort my view of the case. My mind went back to the evening Stéphanie and I had spent together, finishing just around an hour ago. She was fun, the only person I'd think of spending time with on Pandora. But she was still a suspect.

Fed up, I yanked open my door and walked barefoot down the dimly lit corridor. A few people were still working, but not many people at all. I wandered around the base, the dim blue light casting a cold glow on surfaces, leaving corners dark. I stopped by some keypads to punch in numbers, the numbers turning red and emitting a small beep. I smiled every time it happened. It was calming in a way, a yes-no answer that denied me entry every time. I walked through wide open spaces, with dreary eyed workers sat at computers and a few people like me, not being able to sleep, wandering around in their pajamas. I was still bored, but at least I was doing something. I remember when I used to do this in my old apartment block, people used to complain about hearing someone speaking to themselves all the time. I never said sorry, I wasn't _that _loud.

Somehow I found myself outside the medical room again. This time the door was locked. I leant against the wall, closing my eyes.

'_You really should go out there, you know?'_

'_Stéphanie, I am not going back into the Avatar if it's going to be the same as last time.'_

'_We can help you, Anthony.'_

'_I'm fed up of people saying that they can help me. It's annoying.'_

'_Sorry…It really is beautiful.'_

'_I don't care.'_

'_You don't care? It's worth going out, even if you aren't in your Avatar.'_

'_That wouldn't get me anywhere with the case.'_

'_No, but you'd see Pandora, the real Pandora. You might feel different about being here if you went out.'_

'_I just want to solve the case.'_

'_Solve the case and go out. You'll regret it otherwise. You'll go back to Earth, leaving this behind, without seeing any of it at all. Believe me, you'll regret it to your dying day. Don't let pride get in the way of beauty.'_

I opened my eyes, turning towards the keypad linked to the medical room. I punched in four numbers, just like I had been doing for the past day or two. This time I pressed the slow and deliberately. A seven, a seven, a one and a six. This time however, instead of showing me nine bright red buttons, mocking my futile attempts to enter, the buttons lit up green. A small hiss told me that the lock had been released. Unbelieving, I opened the door, walking in. The room was dark save for a lamp that had been left on, sitting on the desk. I crept over to the wooden desk, the scotch and two glasses left, forgotten. I walked into the room in front of me, where the medicine was stored. The light from the lamp illuminated the entrance, showing rows of packets and bottles. I ticked a box in my mind.

7716

The number I had found in Bauers room. Why did he have it? Was Jayden involved in why he was so spooked? Was Stéphanie? I sat down on the chair that Stéphanie had been sitting in not hours before. I looked over the desk, finding write-ups of patients and scrawled notes. I turned my attention to the single drawer to the right of me. I pulled, but I quickly found that it was locked. I cursed before hearing footsteps coming close to me, from the room behind me, where the medicine was stored. I perked up, leaping from the chair and running as quietly as I could to the open door. Nobody called out after me, so I assumed that I hadn't been caught. I breathed out slowly, and decided that I'd better vanish. I returned to my room, more facts being added to the tornado.

I managed to sleep for about ten minutes that night.

Max 'woke' me up by knocking on my door at 7:28. I ran my tongue throughout my mouth, trying to look like he'd disturbed me from a particularly good sleep. Because I'm nice like that. He was wearing his usual lab coat over shirt look. He pushed his glasses up his nose when I opened the door.

'What?' I said when he saw me. He didn't flinch; he must have gotten used to me being irritable.

'You need to see Billie.' Max said. I sighed loudly, looking behind me, then turning back.

'I don't need to see Billie, I can go into the Avatar right now.'

'We both know that's not true. She's a good person, she'll help you get through this.'

'I don't need help.' And to prove myself, I walked right past him and made him chase me all the way to the linking room. He objected all the way.

_Don't let Pride get in the way of Beauty._

Upon arriving at the linking room, I walked straight over to an unmanned pod.

'You can't do this, it's too dangerous! You know what happened last time, what's changed since then and now?' Max cried. I made an exaggerated gesture and opened the pod, the clamshell top gliding smoothly open. I took a deep breath, looking at the green gel with the human shape indented in the middle. For a moment, I doubted myself. I wondered what the hell I was doing. I thought of everything that could go wrong.

You could die. You could be like last time. You could…die!

I blocked the voices and climbed in. I shouted through Max's objections.

'Just do it, will you! Do you want to be the person that stopped the Pandora case?' Max stood still for what seemed like an eternity, then sprung into action, telling people to start the procedure. I moved the metal plate over my chest. After a few seconds, the top closed. That was when the real panic set in. The claustrophobia washed over me, telling me that there couldn't be enough oxygen for me here, in this tiny space. I felt the pod jolt, then move smoothly backward. I remembered back to the evening before, again.

I didn't actually go straight back to my room after my time with Stéphanie. I found my way to where the Avatars were held. I could only look at it through a sheet of plastic, The room they were held in had Pandoran air. The only Avatar in the room was the one with my DNA- everyone else has taken theirs out to the cabin where they slept. It was wearing a hospital gown that looked a little strange on the oversized body. I had to admit, it looked a lot like me. It was creepy, actually. I stared at it for a long time, studying it's lean, muscular body- the body I didn't really have. It looked so peaceful, so undeniably pure and true, just laying there with machines attached to its body. I brought up a chair and looked at him for another hour.

I had my eyes closed in the pod, calming my heartbeat. I remembered watching the Avatar, my Avatar through the plastic screen. My claustrophobia seemed to dim some, and I felt altogether calmer than I did with my previous encounter with my Avatar. Then, my mind experienced the same sensation as before, the bright colours filling my vision. Except this time I didn't feel as if I was in two places at once. It seemed that my mind was thrown out of my body, and into another place. When I opened my eyes I was looking at the ceiling. I moved my head tentatively to the side, and saw a long blue arm. I lifted my hand and the blue hand moved too. No- it didn't move too, it just moved. I was in. This was my hand, my blue hand. I wiggled my fingers, stretching them and feeling good. A man and a woman in exopacks looked down at me.

'Anthony? You there?'

'_Will you be quiet out there?'_ The angry, disgruntled voice came from behind door number 85. I scowled. I wasn't being _that _loud. The corridor was dark and damp, water dripping steadily through the ceiling. Drip, drip, drip. I thought about the case.

_Poor girl. So small, too._

I paced up and down the corridor, thinking and talking to myself. When I passed door 85 I heard the shouts again, louder this time, telling me to shut up and go to bed and leave them in peace. I sighed, shaking my head. I could hear the cars outside, much louder than I was being. They could sleep through that but not a little talk? I made myself be quiet and walked over to the window at the end of the hall. The lights shone through, coating me in purple and blue and red. The world outside was in a sorry state, people in cars on the streets below peeping their horns again and again. The rain pattered against the window. I've always liked rain, it helps me think. The sound of rain anywhere, the water falling from the heavens and splattering onto the pavement outside calming me. Looking outside, I latched open the window, the noises becoming much louder and clearer. Wind blew rain into the building and into my face.

I licked my lips, then decided to do something. I lifted one leg out of the window, straddling the sill. I lifted my other leg out so I was sat on the window, my legs dangling down. The rain immediately made my head and all parts of my body wet. It wasn't long before I was drenched. The water cleansed me, made me able to think clearer. Looking down, I saw the world below me. A fire escape was not far under me. I dropped onto it, and proceeded to walk up the stairs, to the roof. On the roof I dangled my legs down, like I did before, except this time, there was no fire escape below me. I sighed, my mind resting on one topic.

'_Lizzy.'_


	9. Chapter 9: John Doe

_I sighed, my mind resting on one topic._

_'Lizzy.'_

Imagine for a moment you're in a hotel room. One of those cheap, stained rooms like you see in the movies. A double bed in the middle, pressed up against the wall, a rickety wooden desk with an equally rickety wooden chair pushed under it. A large television taking top priority, set inside the wall facing the bed. The bed in question has a red duvet with red pillows, dark colours to hide the dirt. No complimentary mints on the pillows, and the mattress sags in the middle. The surfaces aren't dirty per say, just covered in a thin layer of dust. Everything functions as it should, the television has approximately fifty channels. Just the main ones, of course.

A man is sat on the light brown wooden chair, the piece of furniture pulled out and sat facing the Tv. His left eye is a deep sea blue, his right a lighter shade of green. His rectangular glasses rest on his nose and reflect the image that is coming from the wall. The man is sat slouched, his legs crossed. His mother had always told him not to do that, he'd a get a blood clot, but he hadn't listened. The stubble on his chin is a week old.

The cigarette smoke rises upward in wispy gray lines, the ash hanging off of the end of his cigarette. With a practiced tap, the man collects the ash in the tray on the arm of the chair. He flicks through the channels of the Tv with the remote in his left hand, spending perhaps five seconds on each channel. He doesn't pay much attention, his eyes glazed over. His mind rests on one thing and one thing only. We'll call this man John Doe. Now, take yourselves away from the hotel room, move up, through the roof, up into the sky, over the city. As the hotel becomes smaller and smaller, the neon signs casting a cold glow over the street, you see the city and just as you think that this satellite view is of the whole city, you zoom out some more to reveal sixty more percent of the city, and the night in all of it's glory. Out, out, you go, away from the small blot we call Earth and into the vastness of space. We travel now, away to Alpha Centuri A, and down into the fifth moon of the well-known gas giant, down into an atmosphere consisting of five point five per cent Xenon, less than one per cent Methane and Hydrogen and over eighteen per cent Nitrogen and Oxygen.

It's diameter is eleven thousand four hundred and forty-seven kilometers, it has a mass of zero point seven two Earths, and is the home of the Na'vi. This moon is Pandora, and it is here we rejoin the story of me, Anthony Dowell. Did that sound pretentious? I just felt we needed to add some cinematic features. Too much? Bah, John Doe. I never did like him.

* * *

><p>'Anthony? You there?' the scientists voice rang out, sounding faint and distant. My vision was blurry, and I could barely make out two white shapes in front of me.<p>

'Can you hear me Anthony?' Another voice called out. My vision gradually came into focus as one of the people waved their gloved hand in front of me face. My head felt groggy and my body felt heavy, like I was being weighed down by some unseen force.

'Can you hear me?' The voice rang out again, clearer this time. I tried to speak but my voice came out as a croak.

'Okay, buddy, take it easy.' The scientist, who I could now see was a man, patted my shoulder. The other scientist, a woman, clicked her fingers next to both of my ears. When I felt my ears move slightly, I realized where I was.

_I'm in my Avatar._

'Is…' I managed, trying to wrestle control of my lips. 'Is ebbereh fing awight?' I tried.

'Don't worry big guy, it's okay. This is normal, not everyone's a Jake.' The woman laughed. I failed to find this funny. After the initial, however short, rush I got from linking with my Avatar, I was left utterly and totally scared. I started breathing quickly, my head feeling lighter and lighter.

'Try and calm down Anthony…it's okay.' I took deep breaths, and listened to the doctors speaking. I couldn't understand all of the mumbo-jumbo, but now that the ringing had gone away I felt like I could hear more clearly. Not that anything was louder, it was just crisper, clearer, all of those words speaker enthusiasts use. I watched as they shone lights in my eyes and did other doctor-y stuff. Tentatively, I tried to wiggle my fingers. To my surprise, they worked.

'Okay, Anthony can you move your head? Could you sit up?'

I closed my eyes, feeling like my being was too small for this body. I took deep breaths. In out, in out. Then, with one big push, I lifted my head, feeling again as if it was too big, and my body along with it. As soon as I moved into the sitting up position, I had an overwhelming feeling of vertigo, my head feeling light and the world spinning. I lifted a hand and put it to my head, scrunching my eyes closed. I heard the doctors saying things, but their words went in one ear and out of the other. After a while, the feeling subsided. I opened my eyes, still marveling at the fact my arm, and all of my other body parts were blue. The beds beside me were empty, and I could see the linking room through the plastic or glass in front of me. It felt strange to think that I was in one of the linking pods, yet also here, in the Avatar. All feelings of dizziness gone, I decided to try and stand up.

I realized that I had spent too long shying away from the Avatar, for nothing other than my own selfish paranoia. You don't hear the hero's in stories being like this. Not that I wanted to be a hero, far from it. As far as I was concerned, I would rather be back on Earth. But this paid the bills and damnit, the case had my interest, and it didn't look like I was going to get any answers to my questions sat cowering in my bedroom. Tentatively, I moved my right leg to the floor. I heard some calls of

'Steady!' and 'Take it easy!'

As I shifted my weight onto my right foot, I moved my left foot down onto the foot. I pushed off, feeling like how I imagined a baby feels taking his first steps. I stumbled, and a scientist made a dash to get out of my way. I got to the wall and put both hands against it, breathing unsteadily. I heard a doctor shout for tranquilizer.

'If you put any needles in me, so help me God, I'll crush you right here.' I managed to shout. I didn't exactly mean it, but I might just crush them unintentionally. The doctors seemed to back off. I heard Max shouting through the glass.

'Anthony, do _not _rush into this, okay? You've made great progress, just lay back down and don't strain yourself.'

If anything this spurred me on even more, wanting to prove him wrong. I stayed for a while longer just stood there with my head against the wall. When the ringing in my ears stopped again and I felt mostly stable in the Avatar body, I turned around and stumbled towards the door. It was through the momentum of my stumbling that I managed to get over there and yank the door open. What I saw made me seriously reevaluate my place on Pandora.

* * *

><p>Let's go back to the Hotel room, on a whole other planet. The man isn't there anymore. The only sign that he was inside the room is a still-smoking cigarette, burning quietly away in the ashtray on the desk. As we go outside of the window, down onto street level, we see John Doe walking down the street, walking with a purpose. The wind ruffles his coat and he pulls it closer to him as he places one foot in front of the other. His breath snakes out in front of him, the warmth rising then disappearing. He keeps his head up, creating the air of someone very important. He walks for thirty-one minutes and forty-two seconds, at which point he stops outside of an office building. Like many of the buildings in the large city, one wall is built of entirely reinforced glass. We can see the workers sat at their computers, working for their masters. Above Jon Doe's head, the overhead tram rattles past, creating what would be for an outsider, unbearable noise for a few seconds. John Doe waits until he sees the woman walking down the steps and into the street.<p>

She is wearing a long gray coat, with gray trousers and black knee-high boots. A green scarf is wrapped around her neck. John Doe waits for a car to pass, then crosses the road, following the blonde-haired woman. He does this for another twenty three minutes, until the woman walks down an alley, a shortcut John Doe knows she takes on the way home. He hurries, coming up to the woman. The darkness hides all manner of nightmares. Without saying a word, the man produces a silenced pistol from his jacket and squeezes the trigger twice, aiming at the woman's head. She falls to the ground, never feeling the shots that killed her.

John Doe walks over to the woman, turns her over and, producing a knife, pries off a fingernail with some force. He slips it into a box sitting in his pocket, then kneels over the woman again. He sniffs her hair, catching the faint smell of peaches and cream. With cold, chapped lips, he pushes her wavy hair aside and kisses her gently. John Doe is one man amongst millions, but as we zoom out again, away from the assassin, the man smiles grimly. He taps a small phone device in his ear, and says clearly:

'Anthony Dowell.'

He waits for it to dial, and when the phone is picked up, he says three words.

'It is done.'


	10. Chapter 10:I Didn't Come For The Food

_He waits for it to dial, and when the phone is picked up, he says three words._

_'It is done.'_

After yanking open the heavy door that led outside, to the compound- a place that I had yet to see- sunlight flooded into the room. It would have been blinding if it weren't for the hot, bright lights inside and my new, shiny Avatar eyes. It might have been my imagination, but everything seemed to be more in focus. Colours were brighter, edges were sharper and I could see further than I could in my human body. To use an outdated term, it was like moving from standard definition to high. The scenery wasn't bad, either.

Despite the people shouting behind me, and the general confusion and panic due to the fact that I- shock, horror- actually stood up. You see there's a chance for me yet. I almost laughed at that. Whilst the feeling inside the room was one of fear and commotion, the one outside was the opposite, the positive to the rooms negative. I could see a few people playing games like basketball and baseball scattered around the compound, each person with an air of relaxation that I could sense all the way from here. They were lazily trying to stop one persons attack, they were comfortably hitting the ball and watching it soar across the blue sky towards the various buildings. One man caught it and started jesting. Can you tell I don't know much about sport? Actually, don't answer that. The various areas that had been man-made (or avatar-made) seemed to integrate nicely into nature, seeming to look natural amongst the flowers and grass and the plants. There was a sort of obstacle course further down, and I could see some buildings, probably cabins, in the distance. There were a few people in massive robots stomping around, but that didn't take much away from the general scene. As I walked out slowly and carefully, I could feel the sun warming me, and a slight breeze ruffling my hospital gown.

I stumbled forward, trying to be cautious. I didn't want to fall and break anything. I felt nauseous but didn't have any urge to throw up at that moment in time, so I carried on. The dirt made a path of sorts, so I followed that. The dirt felt surprisingly good when it went between my toes. I looked back, and the doctors had slowed down their pace and were now watching me, presumably to see if I'd die horribly or something.

I saw a yellow flower somewhere along my short travels. This spoiled it somewhat. But that moment was one of the few when I told myself that I didn't want to go home.

I was up to the basketball court when I started to get a headache. It came suddenly. Out of nowhere, a searing pain just appeared in my head, seeming dull and sharp all at the same time. The man and woman playing basketball stopped and came over to me. No doubt because I was hunched over, with my head in my hands.

'Hey buddy, you all right?' the woman said.

'No of course I'm not bloody all right!' I shouted, massaging my head even though it wasn't helping much.

'You've still got your hospital gown on…'

'Oh really? I hadn't noticed! Aargh!' I shouted.

'You know, you shouldn't do this. The doctors know what they're doing.' The woman said, in a I'm-definitely-better-than-you tone. I tried to talk but found the pain too occupying, so I settled for glaring at her. I tried to defiantly walk away to show I'm a big strong boy, but low and behold, my legs gave out and the man caught me in his arms. I was going to protest, but you know, the pain. He was in the process of carrying me back to the building when I blacked out.

I returned to my body quickly and with all the flashing colours you would want in a situation like that. The clamshell top opened up slowly and I turned around, standing up on weak legs. The headache had stayed consistent from Avatar to Human, much to my chagrin. It didn't help that the first thing that happened was Max came up to me and started lecturing me on proper procedure. I pushed past him, shouting.

'I have a headache, it's not like I'm dying.' It just felt like I was. Rubbing my head, I walked slowly to the medicine room thingy. Cut me a break, okay, I couldn't remember the name of the room. I'm sure you'd have some difficulty after successfully linking in to an avatar and then being forced out so rudely. And I like the letter y, so sue me. Thank God that it was Stéphanie there this time, if I'd had to deal with Jayden like this I wouldn't be surprised if another mug was smashed. In his face.

She smiled as I came into the room, then frowned when she took a good look at me.

'Anthony Dowell, what on earth has happened to you?'

'The bigger boys called me names.' I said, then snapped: 'I've got a massive headache because I went into my Avatar. Successfully, this time.'

She went into the room behind her and produced some pills.

'Take these,' she said. 'But don't take them with your sleeping pills. Take one now and one later.' I took the pills, then opened them quickly.

'You want some water?' Stéphanie said just before I shook two pills into my hands and gulped them down dry.

'I told you only one.'

'I thought the other pill might have wanted a friend.'

'Anthony Dowell, when I say you take one you take one.'

'Oh yeah, keep doing that, it turns me on. Tell me why you hate men.'

'Snap out of it Dowell.' She said, half smiling. 'If a headache makes you like this I'll personally make sure you don't have one again.'

'You could have said you've never met one. A man, that is.' She sighed at me. 'Okay, I'll stop.' I put up my hands in a gesture of submission. Stéphanie leant over the desk and snatched the small bottle out of my hands.

'I can't trust you with these. We can't have you dying of an overdose when there's a case to solve, can we?'

'If me and my avatar keep going on like this I'll never get the thing solved. I need to see the place where they were all last seen.'

'You'll get there in time. You just have to learn that you've got to take it slow.'

'And have another person disappear, that's all we need.'

We sat in silence for a while, my headache subsiding. I wiped some dust off of the desk with my finger. Suddenly Stéphanie started speaking.

'You just have to listen to what people say. They haven't got it in for you, whatever you think.' I sighed, too tired to retort. 'And maybe, you know, ease up on the whole I hate everyone act.' I smiled and let out a little half laugh. I yawned and looked at the clock. It was only 5:00pm. It was then, in the heat of an almost awkward moment, when the red-headed beauty blurted something out.

'So you going to have dinner with me?' She said. I blinked.

'In this place?' I asked. She shrugged.

'Food's food. We can bring it back and eat it here.'

'Isn't that unhygienic?'

'We can clean up. Besides, I'm not a messy eater.' There was silence for a while before I realized that I was resisting an offer of dinner from a beautiful woman sat across from me. Dinner, no matter how fake or silly it may be, is still dinner. So I agreed and we went over to the mess hall. She got some sort of stew with rice, and I had a steak. Just joking. We both got some sort of packaged mush that we took back to the med room. I took three or four bites of whatever it was then scraped it into the bin. Stéphanie actually ate hers.

'You need to eat, mister.' She said.

'Not this muck.' I replied. 'Besides, I didn't come here for the food.'

So we talked. Turns out her full name was Stéphanie Josephine Bourdette, and she was born in France before moving to the US where she later studied to become what she is now. She had two parents, still both alive and ecstatic that she was working on Pandora, and she had a sibling named Adele that wasn't too pleased that her big sister was going off to another planet.

'I think Adele took it hard. We were always close when we were younger. We used to share a room and do the usual sister stuff. I don't have a brother, so I said I'd look out for her, you know, do all the things a brother would do without the bullying of course. When she got scared she used to climb into bed with me and go to sleep. I remember feeling so safe with her there, and so proud that she was relying on me.'

But of course they grew apart and hadn't talked for several years when Stéphanie announced that she was jetting off to Pandora. And of course, Adele wasn't too happy.

I was waiting for more when I realized that she'd finished, and was looking at me expectedly. At a loss, I decided to say:

'I haven't done that for a long time.'

'Done what?'

'Listened to someone's story.'

She smiled.

'You should try it more often.'

I nodded more to myself than to her.

'I bet it's been even longer since you've told someone your story.'

'Not much to tell really.'

'I want to hear it.' When she saw me looking apprehensive, she said: 'Come on, I'll get the wine out.'

A quick look at the key told me that it was 10:00pm. Time flies.

'So come on then, start.' Stéphanie said, on her second glass of wine. We'd drank one each when she was trying to persuade me to tell her. It was another two when I even started considering it. I'd moved over to her side of the desk now and was sat by her side. I could smell her perfume. It seemed to make me even sleepier. Let's face it, I wasn't about to open up and lay all bare on the table. I looked into her eyes, and she looked into mine. There was silence for God knows how long. But it wasn't uncomfortable. The lamp, the only source of light in the room, lit up one side of her face, making her look angelic and sexy all in one. I gazed at her. Maybe it was the wine, or the tiredness, or still the slight disorientation of being on another planet, or maybe a mixture of all three.

I put a hand on her face, stroking her cheek. It felt soft and smooth. Her eyes flickered all over my face. Slowly, hesitantly, as if some, not sleepy part of my mind was screaming out for me to run in the opposite direction, that it's never worked out well before, I leaned in and kissed her. All things considering, it was a good kiss, and when I stopped it made me want more, much to the chagrin of the sane part of my mind. I made a conscious effort to shut it off. It still managed to claw it's way to the surface, manifesting itself as an:

'I…' But Stéphanie placed a finger to my lips. My stomach was doing somersaults. She spoke softly, in that pretty voice of hers that sounded better the quieter it got.

'Anthony, I know what you're thinking…' I doubted she did. '…but I don't want to be alone tonight.' We looked at each other for a second more, then in sync, we got up and made a dash for the door.

Like giggling schoolchildren skipping class, we ran down the corridor, nobody taking much notice of us. She held my hand and led me to her room. Inside we kissed again, hungrily. We went all the way, I won't gross you out with details. I will say that it was the most enjoyable night I'd had so far, and I actually fell to sleep without pills.

But I woke up again at 2:00 in the morning. My headache was completely gone, and I had a clear head. The small part of my brain that was saying no seemed a lot bigger now, and it was telling me off. Then I looked to my side, with Stéphanie, her hair ruffled and messy, her hand draped over my chest, her face looking so at peace, her chest rising and falling slowly. I sighed, rubbing my eyes. Every time that I thought:

'What the hell are you doing?'

I looked back at the beautiful woman lying next to me and my protests seemed to dim. It was only a matter of time before the bad outweighed the good. So reluctantly, I pulled myself away from the warmth of Stephanie's body and put my rumpled clothes on. I smoothed them down the best I could and sneaked quietly out of the room. I hated myself for it, but I couldn't see any other way that this could have gone, realistically. I walked away, to my room, feeling spectacularly guilty.

In the spur of the moment, I decided to do something. There was no way I'd be able to get back to sleep again. So I walked for an hour, trying to find an exit. I finally found the one I wanted after several dead ends and embarrassing retreads. I asked one of the scientists to open the door for me, when they asked why I said it was relating to the investigation. It was against the rules, the guy said. And I hadn't exactly been building up the best of relationships. In the end he didn't open it, and my urge to go outside and just sit down was denied. I groaned to myself, and looked around, at a loss of what to do. In a move that I'd only make at 3:00 in the morning, I went back to Stephanie's room. At least there, it felt warm. I tried to stop feeling guilty and climbed back into bed with her. She was still asleep, but she tightened her grip on me when I got back in. I closed my eyes and remarkably, fell back to sleep.

The rational part of my mind told me that this sort of thing had gone wrong last time. That I shouldn't be doing this because it wasn't respectful. I finally shut that part of my mind down for a night.

It's what Lizzie would have wanted.


	11. Chapter 11: Heterochromia

_It's what Lizzie would have wanted._

Yet for all the warmth and peace that I found going to sleep in that bed, it didn't stop me from waking up at five am and going over case notes in my room. There wasn't much more I could study at the moment. I needed to get out there, to the place where all three people were kidnapped. The fact that Bauer knew the code to the med room intrigued me- a man of his position really shouldn't have that number. Either he'd stolen it or somebody had given it to him. That locked drawer intrigued me as well. It wasn't as involved in the case as the video footage of him freaking out was, but it was still an anomaly. Jayden or Stéphanie could be involved in why he was so scared, and could therefore be directly related to the disappearances. Now that it was morning and my brain was in gear, I regretted sleeping with Stéphanie. She could be a suspect- in fact, she was a suspect, and rule 1 of detective work was to not sleep with suspects. And seal of a crime scene. There was a lot of rule ones.

I mulled over the victims once more, turning their names around in my head, their ranks and where they disappeared. At five o' clock in the morning, Jayden should be in the med room. I stood up, stretching and hearing my back crack. I walked out of the room, and made my way to the med room, the way I had now learnt off by heart. Before, however, I paid a visit to administrator Steele. It went the usual way: he asked me how everything was going, I didn't tell him. Then I made a request to send a few men outside a particular doorway and to clear a room with just a table and two chairs in it, thank you very much. I then quickly walked to the med lab.

The keypad was green next to the door. I didn't bother knocking. Jayden O' Grady was hunched over some paperwork. He was in the process of putting some paper in a drawer when he greeted me. Or, who he thought was walking into his office early in the morning.

'Devlin,' he said. I recognized the name as a person on the team of scientists. 'If that's you I'll need…' He looked up. 'Oh.' He said. I raised my eyebrows.

'Expecting someone?' I asked.

'None of your business Dowell.'

'Okay. What is my business is why Bauer had the code for this room.' Jayden looked up at me again, and put his best 'what the hell are you still doing here' expression.

'Why do you want to know?'

'Why do I want to know anything?'

'Why should I tell you?'

'Because I'm the investigator. I investigate.'

'I'm not telling you.'

'Wrong answer,' I glanced at the drawer but Jayden closed it quickly. 'That makes me think you don't want me to know.'

Jayden paused before putting his pen down on the table and staring me straight in the eyes.

'Yeah, I thought you knew I intentionally am not telling you anything because you tried to kill me. And your eyes are goddamn weird.'

'Thanks. And I hardly think that throwing a mug in your general vicinity is attempted murder.'

'You could have killed me. Or even just hurt me.' He got up and started pacing, cracking his knuckles.

'Shame I didn't.' Jayden looked at me incredulously.

'You know, I can't even begin to imagine how you got this job.'

'None of your business.' I snapped back.

'Fine. Just like any information I may or may not have isn't any of your business.'

I rubbed my eyes.

'What if I said I was sorry?'

'No change.'

'Good, because I wasn't going to.' I stood up, and marched over to the door. I beckoned the soldiers in, who didn't know me otherwise they probably wouldn't have followed me, and walked back over to the desk.

'Come with us to the interrogation room.'

'What the hell…' Jayden said. 'Now way am I…'

'Guys.' I said. The guards didn't do anything. I had to make an explicit order for them to go and grab him, which took a lot of the fun away from it.

'Get off me, hey get off!' Jayden shook himself from their grip and straightened his jacket. 'Alright!' He looked at me. 'I'll go.'

The 'interrogation' room left a lot to be desired. It was way too small, the table nearly taking up the width of the room, and the chairs looked way too comfortable. All I wanted was a large, dimly lit, steel room with maybe a two-way mirror, temperature control, and an old door so I could slam it on my way out. Was that too much to ask?

I left Jayden in there, as was customary in these types of situations. Just sometimes you'd get someone who was so nervous by waiting for a long time, they would confess as soon as you entered the room. When I turned to Private Investigation there was less of that due to not actually having an interrogation room. And I've said too much. Have I?

Anyway, I spent the time waiting, just thinking about Stéphanie when I should have been thinking about Jayden. I had left the room before she woke up, maybe she was offended. And anyway, what did I care?

I stopped myself and focused on the task in hand. I remembered Jayden was a part of the science team. It was absolutely possible that he knew something. I had to question him, there was no doubt about it. I was deliberating on how I would make my entrance when Max came up to me, holding a mug of something in his hand. He stopped and said hello.

'Shouldn't you be working?' I said to him.

'Shouldn't you?'

I nodded my head at the door behind me.

'I am.'

'Anything I can do to help?' he asked. I turned to look at him. Why was he asking me if I needed help? He should hate me. Everyone does, apparently. I took the mug from his hands and drank the remaining contents. I scowled.

'Green tea?'

'It's healthy.'

'So what?' I retorted. I turned my back on him and entered the room. Luckily, Jayden hadn't hung himself in the time he was waiting. He was slumped in his chair, his hands in his pockets. He looked me in the eyes when I came in.

'You've finally arrived.' He said. I said nothing, instead sitting down and setting the mug on the table. The walls felt like they were constricting me. I took a deep breath, careful to not let my slight claustrophobia show. I scratched my cheek and was silent for another minute before speaking.

'Jayden O' Grady. On the science team that all three people disappeared, best human doctor on Pandora, not telling me something.' I leant forward, getting closer to him, trying to ignore the feeling that the walls were ever so slowly closing in on me. 'Are you going to tell me it so we don't have to waste both our time?'

'I've already told you. I'm not going to say anything because you tried to kill me.' He replied stubbornly. I sighed, leant back and picked up the mug, turning it over in my hands.

'If I wanted to kill you, I'd have smashed this mug over your head already. Now don't you think that it's a little childish to let your personal feelings about me get in the way of an investigation? If you didn't do anything, you have to tell me so I can solve this thing.'

I decided to continue when I saw Jayden look slightly guilty.

'These are people, and at the moment, we don't know what happened to them. We've got to push all our feelings out of the window. When I solve this thing I'll go ten rounds with you if that's what you want. Just view it as the facts. Is there anything you know?'

There was silence before Jayden asked me a question.

'How did your eyes get to be different colours?' I sighed and decided that if I told him, he'd me more likely to co-operate.

'It's called Heterochromia Iridum.' I found it weird that he didn't mention the name, but supposed he might have not come across it. 'It was just a fight in school when I was a kid. I got hit in the eye, and here I am, one blue eye and one green.' There was more to it than that, but to tell you the truth, I wasn't comfortable talking about my past to Jayden, and I really wanted to get out of that room.

'Okay.' Jayden said, almost imperceptibly. 'You might be not so bad after all, Dowell.' I didn't say anything. 'Bauer had the code because he had frequent headaches, I gave it to him because I was tired of him waking me up just so I could get him a new bottle of pills.'

'Why couldn't you have just given him more than one bottle?' I asked.

'It's against company policy. If someone else needed those pills and I'd given them all to Bauer, I'm in a bad situation.' I nodded.

'Tell me what happened when John T Sanford disappeared.'

'I wasn't on the team back then, I was only there for Wraith and Bauer.'

'Okay then, What happened when Sydney Wraith disappeared?'

'We'd just finished finding more samples of the new species of plant we'd found. We'd gone back to the Avatar cabin we've got in the woods so that we didn't keep having to go back and forth with our Avatar's. That day it was only me, her and Gemmel I think.'

I understood the name from the list of the crew members that I'd received not long ago. I hadn't met him yet

'I went into the separate room to have some privacy for a while, me and Gemmel didn't get along much. Next thing I know, Gemmel comes in and asks me where Wraith was. I said I didn't know, so we looked for her. That was it. We couldn't find her at all. So we both called for a helicopter and came back here.'

I nodded, thinking. He was about to tell me about Bauer when Max burst into the room, out of breath

'Anthony!' He shouted far too loud. I turned around, annoyed.

'What is it, Dr Max? Has my Avatar got earache?'

'Anthony, you're gonna want to see this.'

'What? What am I going to want to see?'

'You should come and see this for yourself.' I huffed, turned around and pointed at Jayden.

'Stay here.' I snapped. He nodded.

Max led me through the corridors and into a room not far from one of the main entrances. The room was not unlike the coffee room that me and Stéphanie sometimes spent time in, but it was empty apart from 3 people. David Steele was pacing the room, massaging his temples. A soldier without his weapons was stood by a red sofa.

Sat on the red sofa was a person sat down with a very straight posture, and eyes that looked glazed over. I couldn't believe it.

I was staring into the eyes of David Bauer.


End file.
